Developed and published by Pixelated Milk, Regalia: Of Men and Monarchs was released on May 18, 2017 for the PC via Steam while the Royal Edition was released for the Nintendo Switch on April 12, 2018. The game offers three difficulty modes to start: Story Mode (Easy difficulty), Normal difficulty, and Nightmare (Hard difficulty). It is available to play on the Nintendo Switch in the English and German languages.
The glory of the past
“Our story begins in the Rashytil Expanse, where the wind races across the empty plains. It is a sad, hostile land – a wild frontier and a gateway to lands unknown. In ages past, Rashytil had a heart: the city-state of Ascalia, ruled by the great House Loren.
Indeed, over centuries, it came to be known as the Gem in the Realms, earning respect from all races under the sun.
But the crusades changed that. Attracting the ire of its neighbors, Ascalia was lost to the flames of war. With its marble bones laid to rest, the city has slept ever since…
…until now.
In a distant country, a father lies on his deathbed. For his entire life, he has kept a secret…yet now, the truth is finally revealed. His only son, Kay, learns that Ascalia belongs to his family, the noble house Loren. As the sole remaining remaining heir, it is his destiny to face that heritage – to restore the ancestral kingdom.
Aided by his two sisters and a trusty bodyguard, young Kay sets out on a journey to the Rashytil Expanse…to Ascalia.
The legend is about to be retold…”
It’s good to be the king.
The hero and his companions are thrusted into the story when they visit House Loren in Ascalia. Sitting in the throne is Kay, with sister Gwendolyn on his left and his other sister Elaine on his right. The blonde man behind the chair is Griffith and the spirit simply goes by Grandpa.
Let’s me briefly introduce the main heroes:
Kay: Billed as the “Unlikely Hero,” he is the protagonist of Regalia: Of Men and Monarchs and heir to the House Loren.
Gwendolyn: Kay’s sister who is somewhat quick to complain when things are bothersome or not to her liking.
Elaine: Younger sister of Kay. She has an upbeat demeanor and tries to look on the bright side of things.
Griffith: Hired bodyguard by the House Loren. He has a serious tone and duteous way of thinking even to a fault.
Grandpa: Kay’s as well his sisters’ deceased grandfather to the House Loren. His spirit is awakened by accident when the heroes visit the abandoned Castle Loren. He wants to help them restore the castle and their name to its former glory.
Unconventional Conventionality
Regalia: Of Men and Monarchs is a standard tactical role-playing game when battling with a few twists here and there. First, the game does not deal with elevation or attack direction so the pros and cons of those aspects are absent. Secondly, there are no standard attacks.
Here the skill tree with available skills is shown in battle. Skills have a cooldown feature which limits their use. The scroll at the bottom of the screen shows all available actions and is called the Hotbar. You can undo actions, get some hints, use items, and even speed up gameplay in addition to moving and the aforementioned skills.
Let’s look at a basic breakdown of preparation and fighting:
Preparations
Objective: Must fulfill in order to win the battle such as “Defeat All Enemies.”
Deployment: How many units you can field. Usually four or more for standard deployment.
Combat
While a combatant is active in their turn they can move or act in any order. They can move how many times they want permitting there be enough movement points. An action like using a skill or an item is limited to once per turn. Skills can inflict damage by nature or they can add a positive or negative status effect to your allies or enemies accordingly. Remember, there are no standard attacks. End the turn when you are ready.
Another neat thing in Regalia: Of Men and Monarchs is the character passive ability. Each character’s passive ability is different so be sure to check them out when someone new joins your party. You can find what the passive ability is by going into the character’s details.
The beginnings of your kingdom albeit in debt to the taxman.
“How is that even possible!? The zeroes need a separate sticker to fit on paper!” -Kay on the debt his family racked up several generations earlier.
Walter Crucey is a part of the Furtive Union which is more or less a debt collection agency. Kay’s ancestors had a rather large amount of debt before the city of Ascalia was destroyed during the Crusades. Crucey offers Kay and the heroes the chance to revitalize the city which would come with money and thus respect which he sees as an investment. the heroes have to repay parts of the debt in intervals as the city gets revitalized.
Schedule reminders
Be sure to check your schedule which can be accessed at any time during non-battle events. They will let you know who will be where and possibly what they are doing. It is pretty handy for quests and side-quests. Notice that the game features a bond system that you can strengthen with party members and will get access to perks in the game for each bond level increased.
Terrible game.
The fights are slow boring slogs that are both uninteresting and feel unfair and frustrating at the same time. The characters are attempts to be comedic and fail at every turn. The MC is an imbecile of the lowest order and I pretty much gave up on this early on when they wanted to make a joke about this clod drinking ‘tea’ made out of ashes from some ancestor, you know because ashes taste so much like tea leaves.
Awful game, this rating is not just overly generous but absurdly so.
I’ll admit, since humor is such a big factor, it may not land with everyone and thus sour the game experience. The game can be difficult as some RNG misses even with high percentages. I wouldn’t call my rating absurd though. 7.5/10 is a score that a lot mixed reviewed games get. The game does get funner to play as it goes along in my opinion.
Thanks for the direct reply, always shows character when someone addresses a critique. Humor is subjective, true enough, I suppose people’s mileage may vary on that one. For me, the humor missed the mark.
It’s been years since I played this game (on the Switch back in the early days when there wasn’t a lot of SRPGs for it, beyond the quite good Mario Rabbids crossover) but I recall thinking the game wasn’t just hard, it was frustrating – which is a difference. I wasn’t losing maps, I was just trodding through them and feeling more annoyed than jubilant. You mentioned the RNG and I’m sure that contributed towards it.
With the review score, again more subjectiveness I suppose, but I do think in general ‘modern’ reviews are far too gushing. I just saw here (and not to pick on TBS, I dig this place for the news) but a review gave “I am Setusna” a 9/10. Ok. I own a Japanese import hard copy of this game and there is a lot to love about it. It’s generally fun, the art is gorgeous and the story was engaging. Not to go through the entire process of it, but it’s also maybe a 6-7/10 game — it is not a game for the ages, it is not ground breaking, it is not a masterpiece that will define a new generation of games to follow it that attempt to emulate it’s greatness. Not even close.
Pretty soon someone will drop a new FFT for the modern days, something which is mechanically glorious, looks amazing and tells a deep emotional story and all the while does it in a new and unique way. A game you can effortlessly sink 100+ hours in and leave it desperate for more. What then? A decent to good and somewhat forgettable game is getting 9/10. Do we “Dave Melzter” the grading scores here and give this hypothetical future masterpiece an 14/10 or something to help illustrate how truly great it is?
Hi, I see you probably didn’t like I Am Setsuna as much as I did. I too have a JP copy and I thought it was one of the better RPGs over the past five years or so. I don’t think it was trying to break ground on anything besides being an all snow RPG as the developers even said it is like a throwback to games like Chrono Trigger. It was an homage not a revolution. It also was not perfect, but I thought it was great enough to deserve a score of 8-9 and I decided to give it the higher range. I noticed reviews were more tough on it for gameplay balance which is something I noted. I do not think it is a forgettable story so I disagree there as Setsuna’s journey is a great one and thought about the ending for a while after it was completed.
As for the there being a FFT for the modern days, there have been great SPRGs, but FFT was special and I do not think another one will come along like it unless Unsung Story which is by Yasumi Matsuno, revolutionizes the genre again. It is like waiting for another Godfather.
As for my reviews score, I do not grade on how good a game is per say but more rather how much I recommend it. So, 10/10 is the highest recommendation I can give for a game. No future hypothetical scores or 11/10, etc from other reviewers.